THUNDER BAY – The Lakehead Thunderwolves have cinched a first-round bye.
The T-Wolves on Saturday squeaked past the visiting University of Toronto Varsity Blues 74-71, the victory handing Lakehead the OUA Central crown, three games up on the Brock Badgers with two games left to go.
The division winners get the top three seeds, and the next best team also gets an opening-round bye and the No. 4 seed in the men’s basketball playoffs.
Lakehead (17-3) cannot be caught by Western, the front-runner in the OUA West, at 13-7. They still have a shot at the No. 1 seed, but would need Ottawa to lose both of its remaining games and LU would have to win its final two games next weekend on the road.
The Varsity Blues (7-13) gave the Thunderwolves a battle all weekend long, especially on night No.2 of their weekend set.
Rohan Scott Smith threw up a three-pointer early in the fourth quarter that gave Toronto a 62-61 lead, but it didn’t hold.
Eduardo Hernandez responded with a bucket 21 seconds later and the Thunderwolves would never trail again on the night – though the Varsity Blues did tie things up a minute later.
In a tight contest, Lakehead turned to its star guard, Nathan Bilamu.
Up one with 4:33 to go in regulation, Bilamu drained a three to make it 69-65. Then, with 3:24 to go he drained a pair from the charity stripe.
Harold Santacruz put the game away in the final minute, hitting one of two free-throws.
Toronto had a chance to tie things up with 11 seconds remaining in regulation, but Rohan Scott-Smith missed a three-pointer and Chris Sagl hauled in the rebound to put the game away.
Bilamu, the second-leading scorer in the OUA, finished with a game-high 26 points, giving him a 20-point average on the season. Santacruz had 18. Four Toronto players hit double digits, le by Lennart Weber’s 17. Scott-Smith finished with 16.
